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Former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia on tension with Iran |
The deepening rift between Sunni nations and Iran is putting
growing pressure on the Obama administration to reassure Middle East
allies who feel "abandoned" over Washington's diplomatic outreach to
Tehran.
The split widened Monday as Bahrain and the
UAE joined Saudi Arabia in either cutting off or downgrading ties with
Tehran. The diplomatic crisis erupted after Saudi Arabia went forward
with a mass execution which included the killing of a prominent Shia
cleric, and Iranians retaliated by storming the Saudi embassy in
Tehran.
Saudi Arabia's response, though, reflected not only
its outrage at Iran but an undercurrent of frustration with the United
States’ reluctance to hold Iran accountable for alleged aggressions. One
Saudi official was quoted complaining that the U.S. "backs off" every
time Tehran crosses a line.
Among other moves, a recent decision by the U.S. to
delay sanctions against Tehran could be inflaming that frustration --
and in turn making it more difficult for Washington to help resolve the
dispute.
For now, the administration is treading carefully and
showing little interest in diving into the middle of the fight. State
Department spokesman John Kirby said he doesn’t believe the U.S. should
act as a “mediator” between the two sides.
But Robert Jordan, former U.S. ambassador to Saudi
Arabia from 2001-2003, told FoxNews.com the Saudis and their allies
“feel abandoned by the United States” and urged the U.S. to get more
involved.
“The backdrop of animosity and of proxy wars has been
getting more dramatic,” Jordan said. “We need to make it clear that
we’re not simply singing ‘Kumbayah’ with Iran and that we still see them
as a revolutionary state.”
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest on Monday
pushed back strongly on accusations the U.S. was looking the other way
with Iran. He added that sanctions are still on the table but also
warned Saudi Arabia wasn’t getting a free pass from the U.S. on its mass
executions.
“We’re urging all sides to show restraint, not further tensions,” he said at the daily briefing.
On Sunday, Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Iran
and gave Iranian diplomats living in the country only hours to flee.
The move highlighted a stunning escalation in the decades-old bad blood
between the two nations.
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir made the
announcement after Iranian leaders sharply criticized Saudi Arabia for
executing outspoken Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, among a group of
47 executed. Protesters in Iran stormed the Saudi Embassy in response to
the killings.
“The killings – the beheading -- was nothing more
than a spark that ignited what had been simmering,” Professor Alon
Ben-Meir, a senior fellow at New York University’s Center for Global
Affairs and senior fellow at the World Policy Institute, told
FoxNews.com.
The fracture in ties comes at a time when the United
States and other Western countries had hoped civility between the two
Middle Eastern nations would ease tensions in Iraq, Bahrain and other
political hotspots in the region.
But instead of staying out of the fight, three
Sunni-led countries – Bahrain, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates --
joined Saudi Arabia’s lead on Monday.
Bahrain accused Iran of spreading “devastation and
destruction” around the world and provoking “unrest and strife in the
region.”
Sudan -- which is not a U.S. ally and, like Iran, is
considered a state sponsor of terrorism -- kicked out its Iranian
ambassador, while the UAE downgraded its ties to Tehran by ordering a
reduction in the number of Iranian diplomats stationed in the UAE.
For its part, U.S. officials have been working to ease the tensions.
The White House said Secretary of State John Kerry
spoke with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Sunday,
while the Saudi Press Agency reported that Kerry had also spoken with
Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Salman. The Associated Press said that Kerry
would likely make another round of calls to the foreign ministers of all
the Sunni-led states in the region, including Bahrain, UAE, Kuwait and
Qatar.
Several officials said one of Washington's most
immediate concerns is the potential effect the spat could have on the
fragile cooperation in Iraq between the Iraqi security forces, which
answer to an Iran-friendly government, and Sunni and Shiite militias
that are fighting Islamic State extremists. That cooperation has shown
gains in recent weeks, notably with the Iraqi recapture of the
provincial capital of Ramadi from the Islamic State group.
Officials were preparing for a high-level U.S.
conversation with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to stress the
importance of continuing the Iraqi government's outreach to Sunni
militias, the officials said.
Also of concern is the state of the Syrian peace
effort, which is supposed to swing into high gear in late January with
U.N.-sponsored negotiations between Saudi-backed opposition forces and
the Iranian-supported government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
In addition to Kerry, other senior U.S. diplomats
were in close contact with Saudi and Arab officials over the weekend,
according to U.S. officials.
But at least one U.S. official blamed the Saudi
government for stoking tensions by executing al-Nimr, who was a central
figure in Arab Spring-inspired protests by Saudi Arabia’s Shiite
minority until his arrest in 2012.
"This is a dangerous game (the Saudis) are playing,"
the official told The Washington Post. "There are larger repercussions
than just the reaction to these executions."
That drew an angry response from a Saudi official,
who also told the Post, "Tehran has thumbed its nose at the West again
and again, continuing to sponsor terrorism and launch ballistic missiles
and no one is doing anything about it."
"Every time the Iranians do something, the United
States backs off," the official added, according to the Post. "The
Saudis are actually doing something."
During his daily briefing, Earnest warned that the
U.S. would not be pressured by any country into enforcing economic
sanctions against Iran.
“We know those kinds of financial penalties have an
impact and they are helpful in countering Iran’s ballistic missile
program but ultimately we will impose those financial penalties, we’ll
impose those sanctions at a place of our choosing, when our experts
believe they will have the maximum impact and those decisions are not
subject to negotiation by the Iranians or by anybody else for that
matter,” Earnest said. “Those decisions are made based solely on the
conclusion of our financial experts about ensuring those penalties have
the maximum impact.”